Notre Dame has the local stage all to itself and shines in an impressive 62-44 Colonial League win over host Saucon Valley.

January 25, 2013|By Keith Groller, Of The Morning Call

With the forecast of snow prompting many changes and postponements on Friday's boys basketball schedule, Notre Dame and Saucon Valley had the local stage all to themselves with a rare 4 p.m. start.

The early tipoff allowed the Crusaders and Panthers to beat the bad weather, but it also caused concern for Notre Dame coach Pat Boyle.

"I was worried about it because I'm a big one on staying in the same routine," Boyle said. "I thought our guys were flat in the locker room before the game."

But Boyle's Crusaders didn't stay flat.

They came out aggressive and stayed aggressive in posting an impressive 62-44 win in Hellertown to remain in the thick of contention for a Colonial League tournament berth.

Notre Dame is 11-7 overall and 10-2 in the Colonial with four games, all in the league, left. The Crusaders are one of seven teams with five league losses or less who remain in contention for the CL's final four.

Tannor Reed scored 25 points and collected 13 rebounds to enable Notre Dame to fight off several Saucon surges and post its fourth straight victory after a rough patch in which the Green Pond gang lost six of nine.

"We played with a lot of energy and the big thing we're doing a lot better is we're really attacking the offensive boards," Boyle said. "We've been focusing on it. We've got three guys crashing the boards and today every time we got out of rhythm, one of those guys would get an offensive rebound and a putback."

With the score tied at nine late in the first quarter, Notre Dame went on a 7-0 run and never looked back, although the Panthers remained within striking distance most of the way.

The Crusaders controlled the paint, not only with their boardwork, but also with shot-blocking ability. Eze swatted away nine shots.

"We're playing much better defensively," Boyle said. "We're playing much more together. We still have some lapses where we look really shaky, which we had some today, but we're playing better."

Boyle said his team really benefited from its tough nonleague schedule. Even though Notre Dame was 1-5 in those games, they learned to compete against quality competition.

"I would have liked to win more of those games, but they got us ready to the point that when we played Bangor [a 62-52 win on Jan. 15], they didn't overwhelm us," Boyle said.

Reed, a six-foot junior, said the team is coming together.

"I think we're the team to beat right now …we're playing really well," he said. "The win over Bangor was big. We're still rallying off that. The key is going to be rebounding, especially when we play Wilson. If we can keep them off the boards, we can beat them."

Wilson is the opponent in the regular-season finale on Feb. 8. Between now and then the Crusaders want to maintain what they've got going.

And Reed will play a big part in it, both in the scoring and rebounding departments. It was his long 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter that stymied Saucon's momentum after the Panthers had closed to within 43-37.

"My game just flowed today," Reed said. "My shots were there and I just took them and made them. And I'm trying to take it upon myself to get in there and grab some rebounds. I need to help Vince [Eze] out and get the rebounds to get our transition game going and help us get some easy points."

The Crusaders haven't even been at full strength during their winning streak. Senior guard Dillon Huerta has missed the last three games due to what Boyle called "a violation of school rules."

Boyle is optimistic about the rest of the season.

"We can be an excellent rebounding team and we've shown, at times, we can be an excellent defensive team," Boyle said. "We're not going to be an explosive offensive team, but when you get to the playoffs, if you defend and rebound, you've got a chance."

Meanwhile, Saucon Valley's chances of making districts are diminishing.

The Panthers began the season 0-7, but came back to life by winning six of nine entering this week.

However, they've now lost two straight and at 6-12 overall and 4-8 league, they've lost any margin for error in their remaining four games.

Saucon got 12 points from Keith Mosher and 10 points, all in the third quarter, by Matt Laub.